The topic of pagerank sculpting is one that I brought up in one of my first posts and at the time the replies were that pagerank scultping was not a big thing. But the more I read, like the column you link to, lead me to believe that it is bigger than some would think. I am eager to learn more so I am hoping that this thread will produce some insight.

It most definitely was a big thing... However google dropped the bomb that NoFollow would no longer conserve pagerank, and in fact would dilute it (while still not passing it through the nofollowed links).
So now its back to hiding links through javascript redirects, or Iframes, or other crap..
To be honest, the decision by google to do this is somewhat perplexing...

It most definitely was a big thing... However google dropped the bomb that NoFollow would no longer conserve pagerank, and in fact would dilute it (while still not passing it through the nofollowed links).
So now its back to hiding links through javascript redirects, or Iframes, or other crap..
To be honest, the decision by google to do this is somewhat perplexing...

We actually had a thread about the nofollow no longer passing pagerank but diluting it. As I recall correctly the thread was pretty good, you should check it ou.

It most definitely was a big thing... However google dropped the bomb that NoFollow would no longer conserve pagerank, and in fact would dilute it (while still not passing it through the nofollowed links).
So now its back to hiding links through javascript redirects, or Iframes, or other crap..
To be honest, the decision by google to do this is somewhat perplexing...

Well it's not really perplexing. Google's original intent was for No Follow to be used on outbound links on ads so that people weren't buying / selling the linkjuice (pagerank). But people figured out they could sculpt pagerank using no follows, and began heavily using no follows on their own sites to sculpt internal linkjuice. Google decided that since this was not their intent, they would no longer allow the conserved linkjuice to flow through remaining "follow" links.

And as for link consolidation, we had come to the same conclusion as SEOmoz and had already trimmed down our structure. Google wants webmasters to pagesculpt using the architecture of their site, not no follows.